Dear Editor:
I would suggest that both Whitewater Region’s physical services manager Janet Collins and supervisor of solid waste and safety Steve Hodson read the Cobden Effluent Treatment Plant Annual Reports, if they haven’t already done so, as what they were quoted as saying in the article does not reflect reality.
From 2013 to 2016 there was a total of 524.45 hours during which the effluent treatment plant was bypassed. Total volume of bypasses was 13,410 cubic meters for 26 separate days. This is over 6 days, on average, that had bypasses for each year from 2013 to 2016 — not one or two as reported in your interview. The E.coli level as reported for 12 of those days in the discharge to Muskrat Lake was well above the allowable limit.
In 2014, for example, the plant was bypassed for over 14 days continuously.
In the 2017 Cobden Effluent Plant Report there were a total of 5 separate days of “raw sewage” that was sent to Muskrat Lake with a total volume of “Raw sewage” of 2582.8 cubic meters.
From what was quoted in the article it appears that some Whitewater staff think bypasses are fine as long as the bypasses are diluted.
Dilution is not the solution to pollution.
The above is why the Muskrat Lake Association was concerned about bypasses from the existing Cobden effluent treatment plant and the proposed new plant and submitted the Part ll Order.
Donald W. Deer, P.Eng.
Whitewater Region
